Harlow Chinese School Cooking Course – Wontons

Dann and I love going to cooking courses, though we haven’t been to enough thus far. This year, we are trying to attend more local events and be a bigger part of our local community. With that in mind, and after seeing the Harlow Chinese School advertise their Wonton Cooking Course, we were excited to see what this was all about.

The Harlow Chinese School has been doing these cooking courses once a month for a few months now, inviting adults and children alike to learn how to cook traditional Chinese food. The first course we went to was Wontons. The course itself is quite long, but you end up cooking and eating quite a bit! The only thing we had to bring was an apron (which we didn’t have to be honest) and a container in case we wanted to bring any food home.

When we arrived, everyone was very kind and there were many people who were there for the first time. The cook of the course, along with her su chef instructed us on how to take wonton wrappers and create two different wontons. One was a more crown-like wonton, that felt like the advance version of what we were making. The other person created a more bunched up wonton, which is better for frying then for soup.

She also explained what was in the filling; there were two bowls on each table, one with a pork filling and one with a pork and shrimp filling. There was also a vegan table for those who were vegan. Once we had seen how she rolled, we then divided off into our tables and started making our on wontons. I have personally made wontons before, so I found it to be quite an easy task. And, I cannot stress enough, everyone around us was so kind and fun to be around! We had several people on our table who had never done this before and others who were pros. Once our wontons were done, we went to go get them turned into soup.

The su chef of the group talked us through what he was doing – that you boil them until they float, then add them to the broth which also had noodles, cabbage, and some herbs in it. The broth itself was very light and on the tables where we ate, there was vinegar and soy sauce. I found out later you can also ask for chili oil! The wontons were so full of flavor and we made an absolute ton – it makes for a very good lunch!

After we finished our soup, we got to make fried wontons which needed just a tiny bit of filling and were very quick to make and fry up. They were crunchy, but I do wish we learned how to make some dip for them (or had some to go with it!) The lessons weren’t actually over with the fried wontons either. We got to watch a demo on how to roll and cut your own wonton wrappers, in case you don’t want to purchase your own, and I got to go up and try my hand at it.

Dann and I felt very welcomed and very full at the end of the Harlow Chinese School Cooking Course. The person running the event said that anyone could suggest food for them to make and that they are trying to do more of these this year. For £15 a person (a fiver to add a child), I could not recommend this event enough! Everything felt so fun and welcoming – the only thing I would change would be to bring a drink next time (though they did have tea and coffee.)

You can check out our other Days Out to see what else we’ve been up too!